3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 8, 2017
Residents and city clash over Gearhart fire station
Tsunami
safety, park
preservation
among issues
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — Tensions
ran high as Gearhart debated
Thursday whether or not a new
fire station should be built on
the back half of Gearhart Park.
Residents expressed their
discontent with the park even
being considered as an option.
The park honors Lesley Miller,
the Gearhart legend who
helped secure the land to be a
park from the county in 1947.
“This is really our only
open space,” said Joy Sigler,
who has lived in Gearhart
since 1997. “And once it’s
gone, it’s gone. I appreciate the
amount of time and planning
that went into this, but we are
talking about a natural event
that possibly wouldn’t happen
for another 100 years — that’s
100 years without that open
space.”
But members of a fire-
house committee said the park
site offered the best chance for
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Gearhart’s firehouse fails to meet modern standards or accommodate needed equipment.
safety in a Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone event.
“When I first heard the
park as an option, I thought no
way,” Firehouse Committee
Co-chairman Jay Speakman
said. “That’s where I began
with this issue.”
But
Speakman
said
research led “us to believe this
is the best we have. There is no
perfect solution.”
Limited choices
About 70 residents packed
the fire station to ask questions
and raise concerns about the
two-year process that evalu-
ated the merits and downfalls
of nine different locations to
replace the deteriorating sta-
tion on Pacific Way.
After a series of geologic
and economic evaluations,
the fire station committee nar-
rowed down the choices to
either rebuilding at the current
location or in the east half of
the oceanfront park between
Pacific Way and First Street.
Building a new fire station
in the park means the station
would be much less vulnerable
to a tsunami, but residents are
concerned about losing a com-
munity landmark.
The current fire station was
built to the standards of the
late-1950s, many years before
anyone understood the extent
or potential consequences of
a Cascadia Subduction Zone
event. In the event of a tsunami
the station, already riddled
with stress fractures, could be
inundated by 10 feet of water,
according to the geologic
report commissioned last year.
Local geologist Tom Horn-
ing said that an earthquake
and tsunami are due some-
time in the next five to 50
years, and according to mod-
eling done by the state, waves
could rise from 40 to 60 feet.
But this wasn’t a part of the
equation back in 2006, when
the city failed to pass a $3.75
million bond to build a new
fire station. In 2015, the City
Council reopened discussions
about renovating or replacing
the station, making it one of
the city’s top priorities.
With the park sitting at 48
feet above sea level compared
with the 27 feet the fir station
currently stands, City Admin-
istrator Chad Sweet said the
park was the only centrally
located space that wouldn’t
be inundated by water that the
city could afford.
Other locations that met
the first two criteria are either
owned privately or prohibi-
tively expensive.
Locations to the east were
vulnerable to flooding from the
Neacoxie. And if the fire sta-
tion were on the hills all those
services would be cut off from
the town below without some
form of bridge, Sweet said.
Sweet said if the plan were
accepted it would cost the city
between $5 million to $7 mil-
lion, which would cover the
cost of a new building, replac-
ing a fire engine and renova-
tions at City Hall to retrofit what
would be the former offices of
the fire and police chiefs.
The lot including the build-
ing and parking would be
about 54,500 square feet. Park
enhancements could be part of
the plan, Sweet said.
“We know there’s some
taking, but there would be giv-
ing back, too,” he said.
Alternatives
Many residents expressed
their discontent with the park
even being considered as an
option.
The land has a deed restric-
tion that allows it only to be a
park, and the city would have
to ask Clatsop County’s per-
mission to lift the restriction
before starting any projects.
But for some neighbors, it
wasn’t about just losing some
land — it was about losing part
of the character of the town.
City Councilor Dan Jesse
warned that almost any other
site would require the com-
munity to raise a considerable
amount of money.
“I’m not convinced that if
we put out a larger bond mea-
sure the community would
support it,” Jesse said.
Sweet said the public forum
on Thursday was just one of
many forums the city intends
to hold about the issue.
Wright named COO Tiny house bill goes to state Senate
of EO Media Group Bill requires
specific standards
EO Media Group
SALEM — Heidi Wright
has been named chief oper-
ating officer of EO Media
Group, which owns The
Daily Astorian.
Wright succeeds John S.
Perry, who is retiring after 44
years in the newspaper indus-
try, including the last 12 with
EO Media Group.
Wright comes to EO
Media Group from Western
Communications, owner of
the Bend Bulletin and other
newspapers in Oregon and
California. She is Wescom’s
chief financial officer and
human resources direc-
tor. She will join EO Media
Group in June.
Steve Forrester, the pres-
ident and CEO of EO Media
Group, announced Wright’s
hiring: “Our executive com-
mittee — composed of Kath-
ryn Brown, Susan Forrester
Rana and me — is pleased to
find a successor to Perry with
the leadership capabilities
to help our company pros-
per in the digital age. Her
prior experience with fami-
ly-owned companies in our
region is especially relevant.”
Prior to joining Wescom,
Wright was publisher of
the Klamath Falls Herald
and News, owned by Pio-
neer News Group. She also
worked as a publisher in
Montana for Lee Enter-
prises. She has an undergrad-
uate degree and a master’s in
business administration from
the University of Montana.
“Heidi has a lifetime of
experience in the West,”
noted Brown. “Her expe-
rience at newspapers in
Butte, Klamath Falls and
Bend make her well-suited
interests opposed to the bill.
Among them: Oregon Fire
Chiefs Association, Oregon
Building Officials Association,
Oregon Home Builders Asso-
ciation, Associated General
Contractors, Oregon Building
and Construction Trades Coun-
cil, International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers and the
National Electrical Contractors
Association.
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
Heidi Wright
to understand the commu-
nities that EO Media Group
serves in rural Oregon and
Washington — as well as the
extraordinary reach of the
Capital Press, our agricul-
tural weekly.”
As chief operating officer,
Wright will direct the busi-
ness operations of EO Media
Group and supervise publish-
ers and corporate staff. The
company’s headquarters are
in Salem.
“It’s an honor and privi-
lege to be joining EO Media
Group,” said Wright. “While
I will miss my friends and
colleagues at Western Com-
munications, I am excited
to become a part of the EO
Media Group family. My
husband, Richard Schuur-
man, and I are looking for-
ward to calling Salem home
in the near future.”
EO Media Group pub-
lications include: The Blue
Mountain Eagle of John Day,
Cannon Beach Gazette, Cap-
ital Press, Chinook Observer,
Coast River Business Jour-
nal, The Daily Astorian, East
Oregonian, Hermiston Her-
ald, Oregon Coast Today,
Seaside Signal and Wallowa
County Chieftain.
SALEM — Oregon’s
debate over tiny homes took
one more step last week in the
state House.
House Bill 2737 requires
the Department of Consumer
and Business Services, the par-
ent of the state Building Codes
Division, to adopt specific stan-
dards for such houses by Janu-
ary. Among them are standards
drawn from the International
Residential Code for lofts and
ladders.
The bill’s standards would
expire automatically in 2024,
after the Building Codes Divi-
sion conducts its next peri-
odic review of codes for state
adoption.
State Rep. Paul Holvey, a
Democrat from Eugene, said
the bill emerged from a deci-
sion by the division in Janu-
ary 2016 that it would no lon-
ger issue certificates for such
structures as “recreational
vehicles.”
Holvey, who leads the
House Business and Labor
Committee, said manufactur-
ers sought a way to resolve the
issue short of waiting several
years for the next state review
of building code changes.
“Usually the codes are
adopted on an international
level and start a process,”
Holvey said in an interview
after the House voted 43-16 on
the bill. “It’s not common to
put codes into legislation. But
on this one piece, we did.
“With all the needs
expressed out there, we thought
it was prudent to go ahead down
this road. We thought this was a
good compromise — that tiny
A TTENTION A LL F AMILY , F RIENDS AND L OCAL B USINESSES
The Daily Astorian is creating a graduation publication for our
local high schools to honor and congratulate the
Class 2017
Sufficient authority
Wikimedia Commons
The state Legislature is developing standards for tiny homes.
houses will meet all residen-
tial codes with one exception”
for the lofts and ladders already
specified in the bill.
Lower-cost housing
As the demand grows for
lower-cost housing — and
manufacturers seek to sell a
new product — Holvey said
Oregon is not the only state
wrestling with how to regulate
such homes.
Prompted by a manufac-
turer in his district, Rich’s Por-
table Cabins and Tiny Homes
in North Powder, Rep. Greg
Barreto said Oregon is missing
an economic opportunity.
“These homes are more
robust than travel trailers,” the
Republican from Cove said
during the House debate.
Rep. Janelle Bynum,
D-Happy Valley, said there
is interest in them for a more
pressing reason — afford-
able shelters during a housing
shortage.
“We do not have two years
to talk about issues that we can
solve today,” said Bynum, one
of the bill’s two chief sponsors.
But opponents were deter-
mined to make their case.
Rep. Bill Kennemer, R-Ore-
gon City, was the lone dissenter
on an 8-1 vote by Holvey’s
committee to advance the bill.
He recalled a childhood
home built by his father that
caught fire and almost killed
his mother and sister because
of inadequate materials and
faulty wiring.
He named a long list of
Melanie Adams, Hillsboro’s
building director, also filed a
statement of opposition but
said cities already have suffi-
cient authority to regulate such
structures.
“I hope that our preoccu-
pation with affordable hous-
ing would not lead to legis-
lation that will mainstream
the creation of unsafe living
spaces,” said Rep. Mark John-
son, R-Hood River.
Holvey, a carpenter and
union representative when he
became a legislator in 2004,
said later that licensed con-
tractors still would be required
to do electrical and plumbing
work on the houses.
Holvey said the list of oppo-
nents is long not because they
are opposed to tiny homes, but
they are involved in the build-
ing code review process “and
they do a thorough job.”
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
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